Colonna di Sant'Oronzo (St. Orontius Column), Lecce

The Colonna di Sant'Oronzo (St. Orontius Column) is about 29 meters high. On the top it houses the statue of the patron saint made in Venice in 1739. The column was erected as a sign of gratitude to Saint Orontius, to whom the city attributed its preservation from the plague which spread in 1656 in the Kingdom of Naples.

The monument was built using the collapsed drums of the marble stem of one of the two Roman columns that were placed at the end of the Via Appia in Brindisi.

The works, begun in 1666, were soon suspended due to lack of funds. Resumed in 1681 , they were completed five years later. The works were led by the Leccese architect Giuseppe Zimbalo, who built the stone base enlivened by balustrades and statues and tapered the drums which were chipped due to the collapse. The capital used was also that of the ancient Roman column, on which was placed a statue (4.16 m high) in Venetian wood covered with copper, of Saint Orontius, depicted in bishop's clothes in the act of blessing the city.

During the festivities of the Saint in August 1737, a rockethe struck and burned the statue which was totally rebuilt; the new effigy of S. Oronzo was cast in bronze (still in Venice) and definitively resumed its place in 1739. During the war of 1940 the statue of Saint Orontius was kept and restored in the cathedral. At the end of the conflict, probably between 1945 and 1950, it was definitively placed on the column.